Broken Seams
by Moon Witch '96
Summary: She never knew that when Edward left her in that forest her true destiny was only beginning. Time-Travel fic. AU. Please Read and Review.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

_It was something she could never describe. It was easy, it was the hardest thing she could ever do. It was warm. It was cold. It was everything, it was nothing. It was the smallest stream, it was the largest ocean. It was a molten flame, it was a frozen, biting glacier. It was odorless, it filled her nose with so many scents that it made her mind almost collapse with so much information running through it. It made her body feel nothing, yet everything. She heard nothing, and heard everything. It was in black and white. Everything was in techno-color_

_It was the when she slipped through the Broken Seams._


	2. Wild Fire

**Wild Fire**

Her breath came in harsh gasps, and her soft brown eyes looked out before her with a shuddering of her long lashes. She couldn't breath, because she felt it all suddenly hit her at once as she sank to her knees, feeling her long nails scraping at the moist ground with a lurch in her mind. She understood. She _**understood**_. And it hit like the van should have hit her all those months ago. It was so simple, so stupidly simple and easy and so much pain could have been nonexistent so long ago if she had seen it all the much sooner. Like lightening it shocked her to the core, making her nerves tingle with sheer relief. She felt like an idiot, but an happy idiot that had finally seen the light.

After so long of living in the dark, she finally understood.

It was as if the sun had shown itself, finally, after so many days with just the bleak darkness, right after a period of hazy fog... As she looked onto the turning, crashing waves, for the first time since she had really moved to Forks, she felt the peace that he had broken with his first hate filled, onyx eyed gaze. She was no longer in love with Edward Cullen. It had taken her a while to admit it, but the second the words slipped past his perfect lips, the emotion that she had called loved had died... Yes, she wasn't in love with him, that euphoric, yet gut wrenching, obsessive feeling was finally _**gone**_. Part of her, the rational one that had been shoved to the back of her brain since she had met him wondered if she had ever been in love with him in the first place.

Bella Swan, for the first time in a very long time, laughed. And she laughed hard.

It was a laugh of forgiveness. It was one of relief. And it was one that set her free. As if shackles had been broken, she could feel the hurt, the pain and the bitterness chains ebb away from her body. The hole in her chest, stitched itself together, leaving only a tear. She was still furious, hurt, and so many other things when it came to Edward Cullen. How could she not be? He had tilted her world on it's side, taken center stage and consumed her very life. But the sheer intensity had faded in an instant and left her body free! She sat up straight, before with almost new born like legs, stood on her two feet.

It felt almost symbolic, doing this. Finally standing on her two feet. She was no longer sported by a cold hand, swung on his back like child or forced into his lap. She was no longer clinging to the sun that had lead her down the path of healing, no she was on her own to feet, with her own power. A weak, human power to be sure, but her own power nonetheless, and it made her feel so proud to be on her feet. It made her feel as if she had climbed the tallest mountain, bare handed. And though her fingertips and knuckles bled, and though her legs ached and screamed, Bella felt amazing, as if she could conquer the world.

Her knees buckled, feeling very gelatinous, but Bella Swan could have cared less. She laughed again, twirling in place in an impromptu dance that was clumsy but happy and wild. It was everything she was in a moments of movements and swings her arms. Graceful, clumsy all at once and not beautiful in any sense but just simply her and everything that it meant to be her. She wasn't Bella, the girl who got dumped by a vampire, Edward Cullen. She was Bella and she was herself. No longer conscious of her movements or of her appearance nor the way she spoke, just as she had been before she had met him.

The rain, such a bother to her only moments before felt cathartic, and she was soon rejoicing in the splatters of raindrops on her sickly pale skin. She marveled in the euphoria of this revaluation. She danced and she laughed some more... And she did it again, just for the sheer reason that she could, and that the weight in her chest had eased with the single five word thought. It echoed in her mind and made her want to weep in sheer relief.

_I don't love Edward._

_I don't love Edward._

_I don't love Edward._

_I don't love him._

_I DON'T LOVE HIM!_

She soon felt exhausted, and collapsed on the ground, looking at the raining sky. It was then that she heard it.

It was faint at first, soft. A snap of twig, almost deliberate it in its nature, a rustle of the leaves. A hiss in the wind. Maybe it was the sound of her harsh breathing... Maybe it was something primal in her that hadn't been bread out just yet. But nonetheless, whatever it was, something made her sense that she wasn't alone. But it was a high pitched, girlish giggle that made her really know that something, or more accurately, someone was there with her. Her nerves and body were suddenly screaming at her. Her mind, or at least the primitive part that remembered the way her kind use to be hunted in woods such as these told her to get on alert. The giggle sounded again, and Bella hands clenched into fist.

Then it was louder laugh, a maniacal sound of pure joy that send shivers down her spin. Bella sat up, standing quickly as she turned towards the forest, where the laughing giggle came from, where she could hear it echoing off the trees like a bell. Part of her looked around for a way out, seeing her truck nearby, but somehow knowing that it wouldn't be fast enough to get away from whatever was out there. Her mind jumped to the moment with Laurent in the clearing. It was just like that. This feeling that was jumping through her nerves. Her eyes squinted in the darkness, where she knew whoever was there would come from.

She saw the shine of her skin first, pale and glowing faintly even in the gloom of the forest, even in the gloom of the storming sky. Then it was her hair, bright as wildfire and she knew that the being that it was upon would be just as deadly as it, if not worse. Most likely worse. It was then her smile, bright and triumphant yet too sweet on her angular face.

She was like a wild cat emerging from the forest thought Bella. Her eyes where pitch black, creased in that damn, gleaming smile that turned from sweetness to madness. Her halo of scarlet curls was fire that danced in the wind, leaves curled and tangled in the mess of embers. The rain did nothing to extinguish the flicker of flames, no matter how Bella wished it would. She was the most beautiful thing she had seen in so many months of the Cullens' absence, and her breath caught, despite her knowledge in the reason why this creature was here in front of her at the moment.

Because she knew with a certainty that this beautiful, wild fire of a creature would be the one to end her.

It was a sobering thought, yet it was a strangely liberating one, just as the one where she knew she didn't love Edward anymore. Unlike with James, where she had felt nothing but terror and fear, with his mate, Bella felt serenity settle over her as she stared at her smiling face. The fog and dark had already been lifted, and the being in front of her would not plunge her into either of them, damned as she was to die, she would no longer fall into the dark, nor linger in the fog.

"Hello Victoria. Beautiful day."she said it with much more serenity than she should have, face solemn and her body relaxed.

Victoria, took her greeting with a small tilt of her fine angled brow. Her wicked smile fading slightly at her calm tone. She frowned, taking a slow, human step forward. The distance between the two of them was still great, but she knew that the vampire would have no trouble crossing it in an fleeting moment. She also knew that the one in front of her, just as Laurent had said, would not give her a quick death. The thought was terrifying, but not enough to make her break the serenity.

"Hello, are you always this pleasant to those who plan to kill you?" said the wild fire, her voice shockingly high and girlish.

It wasn't the low seductive purr she had always pictured. And it did not suit her wild cat form; it was a voice that went with blonde curls, rosy cheeks and lollipops. It was a voice that was curiously reminded her of Shirley Temple. Unsuited to the wildcat in front of her in every way. Yet, it was her voice, clear and high like a sweet bell. Bella smiled at the thought, just as serene as her voice and tilted her head to the side.

"I suppose, I've always had a knack of attracting dangerous company... I guess I'm just used to it." she said honestly.

Victoria actually smiled again. It wasn't the dangerous smile of before, but a quick twitch of her pouty lips. Strangely tender and soft. Almost kind towards the one she said that she would kill.

"I see... You do know why I'm here right?" she asked, tilting her head to the side as well, in a curious movement, like a bird. Or a maybe a velociraptor.

Bella laughed for the second time, this time on of genuine amusement. Her brown eyes narrowed slightly as she looked on at the vampire in front of her. She looked curious in all sense, not fake in anyway and she knew that she really did want to make small talk. She could give her that, she suppose.

"To kill me for revenge of course... Except, I just have to ask, why me?" she asked softly.

Victoria's thirsty eyes narrowed, and her teeth bared themselves, venom dripping down her chin.

"Revenge, just as you've said. He wronged me, and you are at the core of that reason for this wrong. Mate for mate, an eye for an eye."

Bella sighed, her breathe moving her too long bangs out of her face. She knew that falling in love with Edward Cullen would eventually kill her, it just surprised her that it had taken this long, and after she wasn't in love anymore... She was ready for it she suppose. Had been from the second he had confirmed the drug of what he called love to her. Since she had known his true nature as a vampire. She was ready, and more than prepared to it. It was natural, for her to die, she was human, and that was what her kind all did in the end.

But, a primal part of her rebelled. She didn't want to die. She was yet again, only human after all, and humans always fought for life, despite the fact that death that was sure to follow. And she had precious few years on this earth. And she had only lived for eighteen short years of that century or so, something to the being in front of her was a mere second of time. She smiled again at the wild creature in front of her, and took a step back. She knew that in another step she would find empty sky, and then a heaving ocean.

It could kill her, she knew, especially in these storming conditions but the ocean, as cruel of a mistress, was still the only thing that could save her from wild fire in front of her.

"DON'T!" It was scream that made her breathe catch.

Carlisle Cullen was one of the strangest things to see after so long. Far more beautiful than the wild cat Victoria. Golden hair gleaming, face worried and tight with it, eyes black and almost wild. Clothing rumpled and just as messy as Victoria's(or Bella's for that matter). But despite his less than perfect appearance, he was a wonderful sight. She couldn't even stop the flush of happiness that flooded her when she saw him enter the cliff top just a few feet away from her. He walked with swiftness a human Olympian would envy, but not fast enough to make Victoria twitchy, who at the moment was staring at them both with a wary note in her black eyes. When he reached her, Bella trembled, and he swept her into his arms without a pause to his stride. He glared at the being in front of them.

"Leave." he said softly, gripping her tightly, yet delicately, as if she could break.

Bella wished to cry at that moment. She wanted to cry, curl up into the man that was saving her life, and sleep for an eternity. Her breath was harsh. And her palms were sweaty, but not from fear, no her serenity of before had been broken by happiness. She clung to him because she knew he would be the only thing to keep her alive at the moment, and she never felt so safe when his grip tightened on her waist. She clung to the being that was her rescuer once again.

"Carlisle." she said it in a breath, in a whisper, almost a whimper.

She was so shocked to see him of all people. Questions ran through her mind like lightening. Why was he here? Was he alone? How did he know to find her? Why was he on the reservation? How? Why? The questions danced on the tip of her tongue, and she wanted to let them out, but couldn't as he pressed her face against his broad chest. It was then that she noticed that Carlisle was very tall, taller than Edward, and muscled heavier than she would have thought. Still lean, but a little stocky.

"She won't even touch you Bella." he said after a moment, and she looked up to see him keeping his eyes on the vampire in front of them.

Even if he seemed to refuse to look at her, his tone was gentle, firm, and Bella found that she believed him utterly.

"What, do you think such a gentle fowl like you can take me down?" said Victoria.

"More than you think." he said simply.

Victoria laughed, high and gentle. And Bella unconsciously turned towards toward the sound, and through the haven of Carlisle's arms saw the actually amused look on her face.

"Oh, old man you have nothing on me."

Her face sharpened into a smile, and her teeth were suddenly dripping with what Bella assumed was venom again. Her wrist burned at the thought, and she could hear her heart beat like thunder on top of the cliff, and knew that with both vampires so close, they could too. Carlisle rubbed gentle circles into her back, surly to calm her before he spoke:

"We will see young one." said Carlisle softly, tightening his grip on Bella for a second, before he pushed her gently behind him.

It was then a furious fight between her salvation and her destruction.

Most was lost to her weak, human eyes. But she could see between the blurs and snarls and screams and hisses that one of them was winning. Which, she couldn't tell, but she prayed as she took a gasp, that it was Carlisle. Her hands came up of their own accord, and though she had never been religious in any sense, her hands clasped into prayer, and her heart wished for him to be safe, she called in her mind to whoever would hear her to let him win. She had never wished for anyone to be hurt because of her, and it was certain that in this case, someone would. The wind blew her too long hair everywhere, the rain fell on her chilled skin, and her eyes tried to make sense of the blurring mess in front of her. Never in all her life, did Bella feel so helpless, not even when James had her in the ballet studio, not even when Edward had left her in those woods.

Part of her was in denial that Carlisle was the one in front of her at all, toe to toe, teeth to teeth with the wild she animal Victoria. He had always been the gentlest one with her, somehow not making it seem as if he was handling a child, but instead something precious, and it was with the very same man that had saved her life on her birthday and during spring break that was in a furious battle. The gentle hands that had mended her flesh were vindictive now, hitting the hard flesh of the one set out to kill her with a thunderous expression(or at least, that was what she could see whenever he stood still enough), and with the slaps of their flesh rumbling like thunder in her ears. The most human of all of us, Edward had said. Even in this viscous fight, or despite it, Bella knew that to be true...

When both the fighters were suddenly pushed back, by the other's efforts, their chest heaved for breathe even if they didn't need it, and Victoria clutched the place where her left arm should have been, venom, clear and hissing as it hit the ground seeping through her curled, claw like fingers. Her arm still wiggle in the tight, firm grip of Carlisle's large hand. Bella blinked as Victoria hissed, trying to adjust to the sudden shift in motion, and balance her lost arm had caused.

"Fucking bastard, I'll rip you apart." she said, voice still sweet as sugar.

Carlisle said nothing to her statement, merely tightened his hand on her disembodied arm, before dropping it on the ground with a careless flick of his fingers. With a sickening snap, he crushed it under his heel, and the moving arm suddenly stilled. From her position, Bella could see his dark eyes, and was surprised to see how... How alive with emotion they looked. Fury as clear as day was evident in the swirling depth of onyx, stark in contrast to his fair skin.

"I do believe that you're the one missing an arm." said Carlisle pointedly.

Bella, despite the situation couldn't help but giggle. At this, both vampires turned to look at her. Carlisle blinked and she smiled timidly. He smiled a wry, apologetic grin to her.

"Bella, I'm sorry that you had to see that."he said gently.

Victoria snorted, rolling her eyes.

"Please, this girl has seen a vampire nibble at her, and even seen that very vampire be torn apart by your 'gentle' brood. My arm coming off and being stepped on shouldn't bother her."said she hissing as she stepped forward.

Carlisle's face harden at her tone, and once again he stepped forward.

"Leave!" he thundered.

Still dangerous, still hard and graceful in her movements, Victoria tossed her fiery tumbled hair out of her face, and over her shoulder. Pride was shown in her movements, and her dark eyes landed on Bella. She smiled. It was the same, gentle, sweet smile of before, and it made her blink as she stepped forward. Her right hand let go of her shoulder, and she took yet another step forward. Almost unconsciously, Bella took a step back. Her heels once again touched the lip of the cliff, and she inhaled sharply at the sensation that it caused to feel the depth behind her. She took a step forward with a shaky gasp.

"Not until her pretty little throat is in pieces." she said simply.

And then the dance between destruction and salvation began again.

"Too long I've waited for her death, too long have you stalled it old man!" screamed out Victoria.

Bella blinked at her words, wondering why a year seemed to be too long for Victoria. And had Carlisle really been here this whole time, protecting her and not leaving her behind as Edward had promised? A sensation of warmth entered her.

"I will protect her, at all cost." replied Carlisle.

They danced and tumbled and bit and snarled. They punched and kicked and tore at each other, screams, insults dancing out of Victoria's lips and calm reassures coming from Carlisle. It was a flurry of limbs and sounds, making her very human head ache at the wild motions of the inhuman people in front of her.

"Bella?!" screamed out a sudden voice, anger in their husky voice.

The blurs of Carlisle and Victoria stilled, and they both stepped back, half their attention on each other, and the other on the person that had just stepped into the clearing. Jacob Black trembled. His fury evident in his dark eyes, sharp on the two vampires that were standing bold as brass, their pale skin, such a contrast to his own, glowing even in the gloomy and overcast day.

"Your not allowed here." he said simply, looking pointedly to Carlisle.

Bella flinched at his biting tone.

"Jake..."she mumbled, trying to get his attention.

She failed to.

"I have my reasons." said Carlisle.

Jake's eyes harden, and his shaking form increased said shakes.

"Get out of here."

Carlisle, with a pained look on his face, shook his head.

"I can't. I made a promise, and I will stay to protect Bella." he said softly, easily, and sadly.

For a moment Jake's anger seemed to falter, and his brows furrowed. He took a step forward, his mouth open as if to speak. And that was when Victoria pounced. She ran towards Bella with a higher speed than what she had used in her fight with Carlisle, and Bella screamed as she arched towards her. Jake erupted at the same moment, jumping, snarling and seething towards her as well. Carlisle moved as well, griping Victoria even before she touched her, but unfortunately for her, it seemed as if fate just hated her today. The motion of a car sized werewolf sent Bella tumbling off the cliff.

"NO!"

It was Carlisle's voice faintly realized Bella. She looked towards the storming sky to see him, along with Victoria and a giant russet wolf jumping after her. Her overly long hair whipped in the wind, and the cold force of the wind bite at her skin. She reached for him, his own large hand reaching for her small one.

"ISABELLA!" He screamed, desperate.

Bella couldn't even call out his name before she hit the water. Her first thought was that it was freezing, her next was that a car sized wolf, and two vampires made an enormous splash. She tumbled in the current with the force, her lungs screaming. The green water stung her eyes, and in vain she tried to fight the force of the waves to reach the top. She was going to drown at this rate, and she felt her heart roaring in her ears, as if it was still fighting, and her mind screaming that she didn't_** want**_ to die.

Pitch black eyes then met brown eyes.

Carlisle's worried face was all she could see for a second, and she wished desperately that he still wasn't in combat with Victoria, who was snarling and clawing from the confines of his arms, in some mock embrace that Bella knew would lead to the redhead's death, and most likely her own. Jake was on the surface, and too far away to reach her in time, and Bella was sinking, despite her efforts. She _**was**_ going to drown, and it was all her fault, for being a weak human. Her vision was dimming, black appearing and her lungs were burning. Her arms and limbs felt as heavy as lead, and the swirling currents were dragging her down at a frightening speed. She noticed, that Carlisle seemed to have given up as well, still holding onto the struggling redhead, but looking at her with furrowed brows and a look in his dark, lovely eyes that had accepted her humanistic fate. She felt a sharp, hot need to be able to do something, anything to live, if only to show that she wasn't weak.

It was with that thought that she saw it. In her dimming, black spotted vision, she caught a ripple of light.

It was a rip. It was the only way she could describe it in her oxygen deprived mind. It was a rip, a tear in front of her. It was a sliver, a small split of colorless light in the water in front of her. She blinked, trying to tell herself she was merely dying, and that was the ill fated light at the end of the tunnel, and she shouldn't be going to it. But, somehow, her body wouldn't obey her mind, and was making a desperate lunge towards it. Her fingertips touched it, something that was no bigger than the length of a ruler, and she pulled on instinct. As if it was in actual fabric, the water was pulled back, and the sliver of colorless light grew underneath her hand. Bella blinked.

Again, as if her body had a mind of its own, her other, heavy hand came up to pull at the rip and make it bigger. She pulled at tug until she had almost no strength. And then, she slipped through, hardly registering in her mind that it was probably not the best of ideas to go into mysterious rips of colorless light in the fabric of reality. Her oxygen deprived mind could hardly protest, and it wasn't long before she was inside. Bella could finally breath, and her grateful lungs took in all she could. Her breath sounded harsh in her ears, and she clutched at her chest with a almost reverent strength, simply because she could feel her lungs working, meaning she was really alive.

Bella looked around her, and gasped. As she moved, somehow on her own and yet as if she was pulled by a current, she noted that it was the hardest, yet easiest thing she had ever done. She trembled with the cold, yet sweated in the heat of where ever she was. She felt as if she was being compressed and felt too big, and yet felt as if she was so small, as if she was wading in the ocean. Her nose caught a million things at once, yet nothing. Her eyes took in a black and white tube of something, yet saw everything in a thousand colors she never thought existed.

Despite everything that had happened to Bella in the past year or two, she felt that this sensation, experience or whatever the hell it was, was the strangest thing that had happened to her in her eighteen years of life. It was with that thought that she caught a sight of something in the blur of black and white, of color. A simple, rip. Just like before, only this time, it wasn't light... It was a swirl of blue, steady, and opposite of the chaos of the whatchamacallit she was in. With a gasp of relief, she lunged for that, her mind sane, and no longer oxygen deprived, her body screaming on instinct to go that way. For the second time that day, Bella Swan felt a shock of cold. And for the second time that day, she felt as if fate hated her, because by the time she had slipped through the rip, she was clearly underwater again, though this time she saw no werewolf best friend wading on the surface, nor two fighting vampires.

And, to only make it worse, the rip behind her disappeared... And she looked around, noting that the water wasn't salty faintly, and that she was in some dock of some kind, if the wood structures she saw faintly in the very dim light was any indication. With a shrug and once again burning lungs, Bella saw towards one of the wood structures, and upwards, toward the faintest of lights. She reached the surface with a large gasp, gripping a wooden post with what little strength she had. Above her was a dock, and she sighed, wondering what the hell her life had come to. She looked upwards, and saw a full moon lighting the sky, the stars out and the a collection of dozens of buildings.

Okay, she thought with a shiver, she was in a city of some kind. She... She could handle this. Finding out the person that she was in love with was a vampire was a bigger shock than her being transported by the weird rip to somewhere she did not know, it was not as freaky, somehow. It was then that she heard the creak of a board above her, and Bella let out gasp. Someone was above her, on the dock, and she knew looking at the distance between the dock and the water, she would need their help to get out of the cold water.

"Hello?" she asked, hating the fact that her voice trembled, and her teeth chattered.

No answer.

"Hello, is anyone up there? I... I fell in. Can you help me?"she said louder.

Her voice really did sound pathetic, but she really hoped that worked for her advantage. Again, she heard no answer, but she did hear another creak of a board.

"Please..." she whispered, looking upwards.

She heard a sigh, and a head swung in front of her, upside down, longer blonde hair falling carelessly downwards with gravity, and golden eyes worried. His brow was furrowed, and his lips were pulled downwards in a frown. She blinked in surprise. Carlisle Cullen was staring down at her, his eyes no longer black. She blinked again.

"Are you alright, Miss?" he asked softly.

She blinked again, before she answered. She wondered at the oddly formal address.

"Um... I think so... It's just I... Can't reach." she gestured to the dock pathetically, gesturing upwards with both arms.

Big mistake it seemed, because with that movement she lost the strength, and she fell back into the water, with a very colorful swear escaping Carlisle as her head slipped through the water. The last thing she heard before her head hit the opposite pillar behind her was a splash. Then everything went black.

**000000000000**

"What do you mean _**gone**_!?" screeched Jacob Black.

Carlisle Cullen, vampire of three hundred and forty three years, bit back a sigh. His patience, and his temper, for the first time in a long time, was wearing out, and the man-child in front of him was not making things easier for him. He understood his grief over a missing Isabella Swan. He really did, he himself had spent over eighty nine years feeling the ache of her absence. But at the moment, he was too... _**Tired**_ to really speak of the past, especially to people that hated him on a simple principle such as him being a vampire. But, he responded anyway, knowing it polite to do so.

"Just that... She is gone... She is... She's just gone." he said softly, wondering how on earth was he going to explain this to the numerous werewolves gathered in front of him where exactly Bella was.

The sharp, sickly scent of Victoria lingered in the air like a cloud of his head, and faintly he wondered if the promise he made to her would keep him alive at the moment. Or if his own scent would be added to the funeral pyre. He wondered if she would mourn him if that happened. A selfish part of him, the one that remembered the last thing she had said to him, hoped so.

"Yes, we understand that, and we understand the circumstances on which you are here on the reservation, breaking the treaty Dr. Cullen... You followed the she-leech didn't you?" asked Sam Uley, the current leader of the supposedly gone pack.

He sighed, and raised his hand to rub his tired eyes.

"Not exactly." he responded, delicately.

Black eyes narrowed onto him, and his lips mashed into a scowl. Carlisle felt the urge to scowl back to the younger man, but refrained himself. Tempers on both sides were running high, and he wished not to have to leave La Push. She had, after all, said that she would attempt to come back to where she had left from.

"Then why are you here?"he asked sharply.

"I'm keeping my promise to Bella." he said simply.

Jacob Black seemed to have calm down, for the moment at least, and spoke next.

"You said that before. What promise?" he said with suspicion in his dark eyes.

Carlisle swallowed harshly, he looked away from the clearly love sick boy with a scowl finally appearing on his face. He honestly felt it too raw, even after all these years to tell to anyone. He had never even told Esme, his best friend of what had happened on January 25, 1917, the moment where he had first met Isabella Swan. He sighed at the thought.

"... I... I promised Bella that I would come to La Push on January 25, 2006, around eight p.m. And protect her, and that I would wait until she comes back." he said, looking away, towards the storming waves.

Silence met his words, and he sighed. He knew what question would come next.

"... When did you make that promise?" asked Jacob Black, softly, hesitantly, as if afraid to ask.

Wise boy, for the hesitation. But not wise enough it seemed.

"In 1917." he said simply.

Instead of silence, his words were met with an explosion of noise. And questions, and he said not a word until Sam Uley had brought order.

"Are you trying to tell us that Isabella Swan is hundred years in the past?!" he asked.

Carlisle felt a slightly wry grin, the one he usually showed around her appear on his lips.

"Eight-nine actually. Though I should also point out that she's in Chicago as well."

Evidently, that seemed to be the right thing to say to get the rowdy men-children to stay silent. They gaped at him, and he smiled larger at their faces. No one seemed able to speak, and he felt his head ache, (something he thought impossible for a vampire until he met Isabella) lessen somewhat.

"She's safe." he frowned at the thought of what happened at the end of her stay.

Well, she was safe from physical harm, until that moment. And death after that moment. He decided, in his hundreds of years of wisdom, not to say this aloud. She could say it herself when she came, as she said she would... Just as she had promised all those years ago.

* * *

**An: I do not own Twilight, in any sense, other than the books.**

**Erm... Yeah. So It's a time-travling fic. Kinda forgot to mention that in the summary... Oppsies... I also want to point out that not all chapters will be updated so soon, and that this one was because when I uploaded the prologue the bulk of this chapter was already written... So yeah. I hope you liked it, and hope you guys review =D.**

**~Peace,**

**Moon Witch '96**


	3. 1917

**1917**

With a sigh, Carlisle Cullen, vampire of two hundred and fifty-four years lifted the unconscious girl onto the dock, jumping the great distance with the ease of his race. The girl, not breathing, was soon laid out in front of him, and he proceeded to gently pump her chest, feeling the cad*, though he knew it was necessary and hence within the lines of propriety, he still felt the gentleman in him protest at the action. He breathed air into her as well, noting faintly that her plump lips were still warm, a good sign in drowned individual, and oddly enough, tasted like salt water. She gave no response, and he fought to keep his movements gentle enough to not injure the girl with his great strength in his slight nervous movements. She had only gone under for brief second, maybe at the most a second or two, but it was enough to render her unconscious via a wooden pillar that held the dock up. Damn human structures at the moment he thought, trying and failing to hear the girl's breathe.

"Come on Miss..." he whispered, golden eyes frantic.

As he proceeded to try and revive the girl, he noted something else. Her garments. She was not wearing a form of dress he was used to seeing, on this side of the pond or the other. Instead of the dresses he was so used to seeing the girl wore pantaloons, made of denim, scandalously tight on her slim legs and hips, as well as a evergreen woolen sweater that reached almost to her knees, it was large and an enormous contrast to the tightness of her pantaloons. It was visually pleasing, yet somehow not provocative as such clothing should be, no, it was just odd to him. Her small feet were clad in what seemed to be black canvas and rubber. He wondered just who was this oddly dressed human girl, with the scent of rich flowers and summer storms on her skin, or least under the smell of river, and (strangely enough) ocean water.

Her face, slightly gaunt to his doctoral taste, was relaxed, her slightly arched brows darker than her endless, unbound hair that framed her delicate face. She was a pretty one, young, most likely in her late adolescent years. Odd for a girl her age to be wondering around unescorted this late at night,(really to be out at all in this area) and felt grateful he had heard her in the water as he walked past. The street the dock was on was empty save for himself, and he heard not a heartbeat within the vicinity, other than her's and he knew the weakened girl would have been in much trouble... Not that she wasn't in any trouble, considering she was not breathing at all.

"Come on Miss." he whispered again, going again to breath air into her.

She finally breathed with a gasp, and he pulled back quickly, knowing that if his body was able his cheeks would have been warm and scarlet as the girl's eyes fluttered, and as she coughed out water from her pale lips. Soft, caramel brown eyes looked out at the world, blinking rapidly. It was startling shade of brown he noted, as most brown was dark, near black and completely flat in its darkness. Her's was deep and rich, vibrant and so very alive. Bright as honey, yet not that yellow shade like his own. Her pale, petite hand came swiftly to touch the back of her head, and she moaned in pain, swiftly closing her strange eyes.

"_**Fuck**_."said the girl, voice raspy and husky (most likely due to the drowning)and his brows raised at the vulgar word coming from such a young looking lady.

Repeating the word, the girl gingerly sat up, with the grace and gait of an old woman, her trembling limbs stiff and her mouth pinched painfully into a tight grimace. Her large doe like eyes looked around her swiftly, and came to rest on him. A sort of tension lifted from her body the second she saw his face, a smile appearing on her youthful face. Then her light eyes locked on his body, and his brows furrowed as her eyes skimmed his form repeatedly, and he was about to politely protest her ogling(something he was used to from receiving from both sexes) when she spoke again;

"Carlisle, what are you wearing?!" she said in that same husky voice, most likely water logged from her recent drowning spell.

Carlisle felt as if the ground beneath him was suddenly gone, and his eyes widen at the girl. How in the earth did she know his name?

"...Excuse me?" he asked, feeling confusion and wariness flood him.

The girl blinked at him rapidly.

"Why is your hair longer?" she said softly, brows furrowing, her small hand, reached out and touche his slightly shorter than shoulder length locks for a moment, as if she had every right to do so.

She then quickly with drew her hand, and he felt a flood of relief, but noticed that girl clenched and unclenched her small fist. Carlisle felt he could come up with no response as the girl tired to stand. Tried was the key word, since the girl's knees buckled, and she fell forward. Almost unconsciously he reached out to catch her, too quickly too be considered humanistic, and he flinched when he held her steady. He noted, even at the rapid movement the girl had hardly reacted. Maybe a blink at the blur he had made, or a slightly twitch of her hands. He let her go as soon as he was able, ignoring the blazing warmth of her flesh (compared to his own) with a twinge of remorse.

"Carlisle, _**what**_ is going on?" she asked softly, brown eyes wide.

He said nothing, looking down at the girl, and he found that he could say nothing. It was obvious that the girl knew him, how he had no clue, but the familiarity in which he said his first name could indicate nothing else. Unless the girl simply mistook him for someone else? He frowned. He doubted there was many people with his name in this modern day and age, especially with his particular physical characteristics. Unless he had a doppelganger vampire running around, Carlisle knew that this girl knew him, from the way she looked up at him, as if he held the keys of life in his strong hands. He shifted uncomfortably, as was his habit as he answered the girl;

"Miss... I do not have the faintest idea..." he said at last, shrugging slightly.

The girl's delicate brows furrowed. Her lips pulled into a frown, bringing out the fact that her top was slightly too full to fit the bottom one, and she looked up at him. Her eyes squinted in faint suspicion.

"Why are you calling me Miss?" she asked it with clear confusion in her voice.

Carlisle gave her a raised brow and a wry smile.

"Because I do not know your name, despite the fact that you seem to know my own."

The girl froze, stiff as a board as she weakly pushed away from him. Her wide eyes grew impossibly larger, and her breathing seemed to stop all together. For one frantic second, he thought he heard her heart stop as well, and he wondered if the girl had suffered cardiac arrest with a jolt of panic. It nearly scared him to death(humorous considering he was already dead), and he let out a breathe of relief when her heart seemed to started again, this time at a frantic rate that thundered in his sensitive ears.

"You... You don't know who I am?" she asked it softly, almost to softly for him to hear and with a wide eyed look to her face.

He shifted uncomfortably at the gathering tears that hovered on the edge of her short lashes. He felt a bit like a crumb* as the girl's face contorted at his silence. She looked away from him, biting her lower lip and swallowing thickly. He felt horrible, and he touched her shoulder gently.

"No... I am sorry... Believe me, I have an excellent memory, and would-"

"Remember me... Yeah, I believe it comes with being a vampire." she said bluntly.

For that second time that day Carlisle felt the world beneath him fall away.

"I... What?" he asked, sharply this time.

The girl gasped, and slapped her small hands over her mouth. She looked over to him with wide eyes, the whites showing in her dismay.

"Shit."she said hoarsely.

"What ever do you mean?" he asked again, trying to keep himself composed.

The girl sighed, and gave him a timid smile.

"You know exactly what I mean Carlisle Cullen. You were turned after you chased a real pack of vampires, in London, and hid beneath decaying potato skins, and fled away from humans to save them, and ... I believe you were born either after or before Cromwell's rule... I can never remember which..." she said, furrowing her brows.

Carlisle sighed... All those were facts that no one knew, save himself, and to here it come from a stranger? Fascinating and troubling at the same time.

"Before."he said simply.

The girl managed a smile.

"Since you don't know who I am, and seem... To be dressed strangely, I can assume you aren't the Carlisle I know. Yet? Where am I and what year is it?" she said weakly, looking around, focusing on his clothing and the buildings around the Chicago river.

Carlisle blinked.

"Chicago, 1917."

The girl breathed in sharply.

"Oh. Oh."she said, then she looked at him through her short lashes.

It was a brief, look, full of emotions he could not read completely. Agony. Lost. Hope. Fear... So many things flickered through her caramel eyes, and he felt himself feel very sorry for everything the girl must be going through. Her tone when he said his name was an intimate sort of one, familiarity, and most painfully there, trust etched in there that he felt humbled, wondering just what kind of man that she knew him to be to bring forth this tone. He did not know this girl that seemed to know so much of him, and he felt like a cad because of it... Carlisle felt alarmed as the girl swayed, her eyes rolling slightly backwards. He reached out to steady her, and wished he could help the girl that claimed to know him.

"Please, don't leave me alone again... Please be there when I wake up..." she said it softly, like a prayer.

"I give you my word that I will be there." he heard his voice say distinctly.

She smiled, tears once again hovering in the corners of her expressive eyes, touching on her lashes. It was a lovely, almost angelic smile that looked off on her slightly thin face. But it was, what it was, lovely, and completely her's. And then the strange girl promptly collapsed in his arms.

**~()~**

When Bella woke, one thing came to her hazy, aching and throbbing brain;

_Drowning? **Sucks**._

Her limbs felt as if they had been filled with lead, and she could hardly make the effort to breathe, let alone even attempt to move in any shape or form. Her throat felt raw, as if someone had taken sandpaper and rubbed it repeatedly inside, with the force only a vampire could have. She even couldn't seem to open her eyes at first, for they felt like they weighed tons. When she finally did, she noticed it was dark, no light lingering at the corners of the heavy curtains to her left. She noticed she was in a fairly small sized room, slightly bigger than her own room, sparsely furnished with nothing but the bed, a wardrobe, and a small end table with an old fashioned porcelain wash bowl, a glass, and a ceramic pitcher. It was chipped she noticed with a blink.

There was a faintly unlived air to the room. It was clean, no dust marred any surface, but it had distinct stale quality to the air, and Bella knew that not many people came into the room, or at least no one did very often. She moved to sit up, ignoring the ache to her ribs as she carefully moved herself to a shaky sitting position. She felt odd, as if her head was not connected right to her body, and her head, aching and all felt as if it was suspended in the air. She coughed, once, twice, her whole body heaving with the movement. With a desperate lung, she went for the chipped pitcher and the clear glass, and thanked whatever power to be as the clear, magical liquid called H2O soothed her raw throat.

It was a after a few glasses, when Bella found herself marveling that drowning made you incredibly thirsty. She inspected the dark room with caution, wondering where the hell she was. She understood she had almost drowned, the vague memories with green and dark water could lead to nothing else. She had enough experience with near death experiences involving water. She recognized the symptoms in her tired body. She sighed slightly glancing around the room again. Nothing struck her as personal, the curtains were plain and heavy, the bed comforter she sat on was a simple green. A single pillow had cushioned her head. It was a very cold room, not in temperature(though she did feel a soft coolness), but in personality. With unsteady limbs, she stood up.

She felt for second that maybe her limbs would not hold her weight(as little as it was now) but somehow she stood, steady by another miracle. It was then she noticed the rather unflattering, voluminous dressing gown she was wearing, that was definitely not her own. She frowned down at the unshapely fabric, which dragged on the floor and she somehow had not tripped over. She shook that thought away, and with another glance around the room, Bella felt an eagerness to explore flood her and see if this impersonal room had any feature that showed life. But something held her back, she was not the owner of where ever the hell she was. Rudeness for whoever pulled her from the water was not what she to do, so she refrained.

She blinked slightly in the gloom. It really was dark here... With caution, Bella felt that it was not rude to glance out the window. So with care, she pulled back the curtains. It was dark outside as well, and Bella could see just the faintest hints of dawn upon the horizon, or, at least what little she could see from it, since most of it was blocked scattered brownstone buildings that looked to be from the eastern side of the United States, covered in snow and crusted over with ice. Bit like Brooklyn or something of the sort, only cleaner, yet still as dark and tough in attitude. A winding river was to the side, dark as ink and made her shiver slightly. Maybe she had been caught in some sort of insane current and brought inland somewhere. It made sense, considering she remembered faintly being at First Beach...

She turned away, and looked into the dark room again. It was then that she noticed the door at the other end of the room. It was slightly ajar. She walked to it, and found herself met with a bathroom, reaching blindingly, she reached for the light switch, noting that it was darker in here than the room. She could barely make the shape of the tub. She found it, and flipped, blinking at the both the light and the time it took to fill the room, as well as the flickering quality to the bulb. Strange. What was even stranger still was the fact that the room was so... Odd. Old-faishoned to the tee, the tub struck her the most, claw-foot, and somehow, filled to the brim with warm inviting water, actually steaming in the slightly frigid air. Bella shifted, and then jumped as someone touched her shoulder.

She couldn't scream, but she turned swiftly as she was able to see a stout, middle-aged woman looking her with a firm glance. She was taller then Bella despite her slight hunch, and had such an air that she knew that she would not take much sass from anyone. This woman looked as if she ate nails for breakfast and was as tough as them. She was dressed in an apron, and a dress, and like the rest she had seen, old fashioned to the tee. Her graying hair was thick, and the vibrant scarlet hair was as bright as someone half her age. Then, she smiled, softly, making the hard lines soften a great degree, and make her look as gentle as a doe. A doe that held such a fierce air that would stave off any predator, and then eat them itself just simply because it was bothered.

"So, our wee sleepin' beauty awakens?" said the woman with a surprisingly soft voice, musical with what seemed to be a an Irish ascent.

Bella gave no word to the intimidating woman, and found herself wondering if he strong and tanned arms had dragged her out of the water.

"Not a talkative wan, are yeh?" asked the woman, clever eyes as bright a as evergreen.

She herself couldn't help but smile at her words.

"No." she said it, wincing at the harsh note to her voice.

She sounded like a heavy chain smoker, and felt herself flush because of it.

"Aye. well, I wouldn't blame yer, fallin' into de river wud make anyone stay silent for a few days, especially a young lady such as yerself."she said it sternly, and touched her large ruddy hand to her face.

She looked at her with a soft, pitying expression.

"Cleaned yer best I cud, an' sent you're fierce quare clothin' ter de wash, dressed yer in me own sleepin' gown. Yer slept still as de grave al' noight ."said the woman.

"Thank you, it was very kind of you to do so." said Bella automatically, feeling herself foolish.

The woman wavered her off.

"Don't tank me wane, it wus al' on de Doctor's orders. Bless 'imself. Nigh, let's git yer out av dohs lorge rags, an' into dis, its a wee on de plain side mind yer, but it wus al' I cud git, it wus me youngest daughter's. It shud fit well enoof."she said with a slight smile.

With a slight push, the woman tore off the large dressing gown that Bella swam in, stripping her with the efficiency of a well trained governess. She all but threw her into the tub, and Bella blinked and covered herself properly. An embarrassed flush came around her cheeks.

"Ah, pardon miss, I'm used ter only me laddies an' grandchildren... I did not mean ter embarrass yer. I'll leave, soap dare... Call if you're nade me. "she left without another word, shutting the door behind her.

Bella hadn't even learned her name, and felt a little stupefied. With quickness and on autopilot, she bathed, and then swiftly looked at the dress that was left for her. It was not plain, in her opinion. Just simple, white and breezy with simple lace. Beautiful to her. Complex to put on for sure, as was the underclothing, which she put on with much hesitation. She only did so because it was old fashion to the tee, just like the woman and was making the back of her mind tingle, as if she had forgotten something and was desperately trying to remember. She noted that the dress reached the ground, and still dragged. The woman's daughter was fairly tall, and very curvy she thought absently, picking at the extra fabric that hung around her body.

Without thought word Bella left the bathroom, feet bare and painted blue toe nails(something Jake had done a few days ago to cheer her up with his sheer goofiness) padding on the floor, hair dripping slightly. She left the room as well, and peaked into the hallway, the old woman stood there, and looked her up and down. She whistled softy, another smile appearing on her face, though it was slightly wolfish.

"Well ain't yer as juicy as a flower in bloom! Sure didn't luk dat way before, but I suppose that's de part av bein' drowned!"said the woman with a hearty chuckle.

Bella felt herself laugh, somewhat weakly because of the pain it caused her throat.

"I wouldn't say that ma'am."she said, smiling brightly to make up for the lack of volume in either her voice or laughter.

This only made the woman smiled.

"Waaatever yer say lassy... Nigh, before we start anythin' else, let's make sum proper introducshuns. I'm Maggie O'Riley, an' dis is me apartment buildin'... Or, well, 'tis me 'usband's, but dat auld eejit never does a tin' ter care for it, or its inhabitants. De Doctor broot yer in, an' asked I care for yer, may I ask who yer are?" said the woman, all in one breath and so quickly that Bella could hardly understand her in her tired state.

"Isabella... I prefer Bella..Mrs. O'Riley." she said, blinking.

She hadn't said her last name, on propose, and Maggie O'Riley had noticed. But the older woman said nothing, only narrowed her eyes, and latched her large, calloused hand onto Bella's.

"Well den, Miss Bella, folly me so I can git yer warmed up." she said, smiling, evergreen eyes promising to let it slide for now, but to question it fully later.

Without another word, Mrs. O'Riley dragged her out the of the room, down a hallway with two or three doors, past a parlor and into a dinning room, where a covered bowl greeted her. She was shoved with force into the chair, but with a gentle hand.

"Nigh, eat**.** "said Mrs O'Riley simply.

Bella found herself doing so without pause, slowly consuming a heavy stew, rich with flavors and thick with vegetables. It was almost to heavy for her to eat, after months of near starving herself the food felt almost horrible enough to make her sick. But under the watchful eye of an stern, no nonsense Irish woman, Bella forced herself every last drop, and felt her underused stomach lurch slightly as she finished.

"Nigh-"started Mrs O'Riley.

She was interrupted by the dinning room door opening, and both females blinked as Carlisle Cullen walked in. Mrs O'Riley squeaked, Bella jumped, and her eyes widen. Suddenly, where and when she was struck home, and she felt as if the world had fallen from underneath her feet. She was in the past. She had freakn' _**time **_traveled. And she had even cross a reasonable distance as well, as she was in Chicago, Illinois, and worst of all, unlike every other supernatural thing that had happened, Bella had no logical reason for it to be so. She found, somewhere in the back of her mind, that he hadn't left her alone.

"Carlisle!" she exclaimed, just as Mrs O'Riley squeaked out a "Doctor!"

The older woman looked to the younger with a surprise glance, wondering how a the girl could say a man's name so causally... A relation perhaps, thought the woman? True, the girl did not look an ounce like the good Doctor, but no other thing could explain it. The Doctor himself had come to this conclusion, and so as not arose the suspicion of the astute woman, spoke;

"Mrs O'Riley I see that you have been kind to my cousin, who lost her luggage as she fell into the Chicago, getting off her passenger boat."said Carlisle smoothly, a smile to his face.

Bella blinked at the lie, but kept silent. He was lying to keep her close to him, and Bella found no fault in it at all. This meant that he meant to keep her near for a while, and meant that she wasn't completely alone in a foreign place and time. She gave a sigh of relief, and tried to thank Carlisle with her eyes.

"Ah! It wus nathin', Miss Cullen is such a well behaved lassy, made not a fuss! " said the woman, firmly, her tough as nails attitude coming back after the initial shock of seeing a vampire faded.

She gathered the dishes, winking to Bella.

"'Ill clap yer lay-ra dear, I 'av everyone else in de buildin' ter sprog. Enjoy your visit ter your cousin."she said it with amusement to her tone and with a bounce to her step as she left, bowing her head slightly to Carlisle as she did.

Bella looked after Maggie O'Riley, and felt a small smile reach her lips. She felt she was going to like that woman.

"So, dearest 'cousin', may I perhaps ask your name?"said a deep, familiar voice.

Bella looked up, and felt her smile fade. This was her second time she 'meeting' Carlisle Cullen, and the first time he had already known her name. But, as she looked on at the Carlisle younger by a ninety or so years, she found that she really did not 'know' him. Not yet, this man had something to his stance, to his youthful face that almost made him seem the year he was changed, yet at the same time she saw the years of being alone within his molten eyes. Years without a family yet to be had made him a near stranger, and it startled her.

"Well, my dearest 'cousin', my name is Isabella Swan."she said it softly, still seated on the small dining table, fingertips winding together so as not to fidget.

Carlisle's molten eyes were curious, just like they were in the future, and it reassured Bella that maybe he hadn't changed to much.

"Well Miss Isabella Swan, how do you know me?" he asked, softly, coming around to sit at the table across from her.

His hands wound together in front of him, and he looked at her with a serious gaze and a firm brow. She sighed, and looked away. How was one suppose to explain that?

"Carlisle... Um, Doctor Cullen, I'm sorry, but that's a little hard to explain, and I don't know where to begin." she said it softly, feeling her cheeks heat at the thought.

Ex-girlfriend of the man that was to be his son? Talk about awkward. Bella also refused to listen to the voice in the back of her head that told her that Edward was human now. She was not so ready, despite the fact that she was over him, to confront that thought.

"Try the beginning, and the talk towards the end. People tend to do that."he said, and part of Bella wondered at the fact that he had just made a joke.

The Carlisle she knew was too serious or above the pretense of jokes, or at least the ones that were to simple and blunt. It seems that the one seated in front of her had a bit of growing up to do. She snorted at the thought.

"Well, it all started when I met your son."she said it wryly, looking back at him to gauge his reaction.

He did not disappoint, he sat ram straight, eyes wide. She almost giggled at his expression, but restrained herself.

"Pardon?"he asked, voice raising an octave.

Isabella Swan's eyes sparkled, her uneven lips pulling into another smile, a true smile. Carlisle found that it suited her slightly gaunt face.

"I told you it was hard to explain. Now please don't interrupt me!" she said it with a laugh.

He scowled.

"Go on, Miss." he said stiffly, trying to suppress his curiosity, what did she mean by son?

Her smile faded, and she looked past him. Her caramel eyes were a hundred miles away.

"I met your son, your family... And I fell in love with the thought of forever and unity that you all represented. I never really had that growing up... But seeing your family made me hope. Especially your son, he made me feel so much that I thought he would be the one to bring me forever and happiness. Love is what I felt for him, and I thought he had felt the same for me as well... But it seems that is not the case."she said it matter-of-factually.

Their was some pain, lingering in her voice, but there was something in her sudden, rueful smile that told him she was over... His son.

"In short, a girl meets boy vampire, girl falls, and boy vampire leaves. Girl grieves for the lost of boy vampire and the promise of a family she could never have on her own... Only that was intertwined with the fact that I had attracted the attention of three other vampires. The first was killed by your family, the second by a pack of werewolves, and the third... Well, the third is why I'm here."she finished.

"A third vampire? Werewolves? My family?" he asked, fascinated.

She bit her bottom lip.

"Yes... A nomad that tried to kill me today? Later? The werewolves are someone you eventually will met as well, or at least their ancestors... And the family is the one you will have one day."

"What family? Vampires cannot have any offspring, and I don't see that being changed. Why do you know my son, if he doesn't exists then?Why would the nomads wish to kill you in the first place?"he asked firmly, eyes surly bright with his curiosity.

Bella huffed. She never knew him to ask so many questions, or at least directed towards her! It was as if he had already known...

"The family forged by venom and choice, you will change them over the next ninety or so years, or at least your wife, fist son, first daughter, and second son. Then your oldest son, and third, who is also a vampire now, will come with your second daughter by their own free will... And technically your first son does exist right now, Edward is simply human at the moment." she said, rolling her eyes.

"Not Edward, the Mason boy?" he asked, visibly startled.

Bella felt herself start. He already knew him? She had been under the impression that he had met him at the hospital, the day of his change... She frowned, and wondered what the human Edward would think of her, with them on the same footing? Distraction she hoped, would not in his words to describe her now...

"When are you from Miss Swan?" asked Carlisle suddenly.

She sighed, breaking free from her thoughts. Human Edward would be dealt with soon enough, and though she felt the urge to find him, he was not what mattered anymore... Not yet, what matter was the fact that she was ninety years in the past. She smiled at Carlisle, applauding his intelligence.

"2006, and I am grateful that you read between the lines to see that I'm a time traveler. Most wouldn't make that leap." she said, biting her lips.

"I should be called mad for even asking, but then again, I am a vampire, something such as time travel should not be so surprising... Let me ask, how did you come to this time?"he asked, excitement in his familiar voice.

Bella simply shrugged.

"I haven't got the faintest idea, all I know was that I was going to drown in the Pacific Ocean, and the only way to survive was to travel through the strange rip in reality that I half thought I imagined. Then, BAM! I'm in Chicago, 1917, talking to someone who I already met, saved my life numerous times, and has no idea who I am."she said with a faint not of frustration in her voice.

He cocked his head to the side.

"A rip in reality?"

"Something like that, I can't really describe it any other way, it was about a foot long, and well, when I pulled, it grew bigger, and bigger, then I went through. Strange tunnel like that in Willy Wonka, and next thing I know I'm in the Chicago river. And Lord and behold, there you are, saving my life again..."she said, babbling, she knew.

His eyes, so curious it almost made him look juvenile, sparkled with delight and faint humor.

"You seem to be distressed." he said it simply and without pretext.

Bella, despite herself, let out a very loud, and unladylike snort.

"Wouldn't you? I mean, if you suddenly were thrust with the Denalis without them knowing you, in the past no less... You'd be freaking out as well Doctor Cullen. Or terribly excited at the scientific prospect." she said it dryly and without real restraint.

Carlisle cocked his head to the side, and Bella wonder if it was a habit he had picked up to appear more human.

"The Denalis? Who are they?" he asked brightly.

Bella let her head fall onto the table, enjoying the loud_** SMACK!**_ that was produced because of it. She sighed. He didn't even know the Denalis? Granted, she didn't know them herself, but they were someone who could be some sort of connection to her memories. She wondered faintly when he met them.

"Never mind."he said, gently.

Silence ruled the dinning room. Bella found no fault in silence, she had once lived for moments like these when she had lived with her mother, and she kept her breathing steady as she stared at the grains of the wooden table. She felt tired, exhausted really, exhausted of all the maelstrom of paranormal events. Granted, Bella had never been a normal human being to begin with, but it was still a sort of strange turn events for someone who had been ever the skeptic when it first had happened. Now, if she could count off her fingers, from what she remembered, she fallen in love with a vampire and befriended and come to love his family, nearly killed and turned into a vampire, left by said vampire like a piece of meat(though that could happen to anyone, not just people with paranormal relationships), hunted by two other vampires, protected and befriended by werewolves, and then promptly thrust into the past and over a hundred miles to her current location and time. She sighed, and promptly lifted her head, and looked at Carlisle Cullen of the past with a critical gaze.

"Your hair is longer."she said it softly, curious in her observation of him.

It really was, his hair in his time was cropped much shorter than it was now, neat and just long enough to curl slightly around his ears. Now his golden locks were almost, but not quite to his shoulders, lovely and bright even in the dim light. His hand whipped up, vampire speed to run through his hair. It struck her as a movement that Edward had done very often, in nervousness or stress. It seemed to be a learned trait she thought.

"Perhaps I cut it by the time I met you."he said.

"Yeah... It curled around your ears... It made you look older, but not by much."she said with a faint chuckle.

He chuckled as well.

"Its hard to appear older with a face like my own."he said good naturedly.

"I bet."she said with a small grin, still looking up at him, cheek against the table.

His eyes sparkled, and Bella supposed he was taking all this fairly well. But at the same time, she could see the slightly wary shape of his shoulders, the slight narrowing of his eyes. His eyes in her time were wide with trust, and his shoulders relaxed, almost lazy around her. He didn't trust her completely, she could see the difference between his future and present self. She was a stranger that knew him, and it made him both wary and curious enough to keep her close. She was under no delusion that he liked her at the moment.

"May I stay here Doctor Cullen?With you? Forgive my forwardness, but you are the only soul I will know for another ninety years."she asked, feeling odd for saying his name so formally,(or speaking this formally and old schooled) yet saying so felt made her feel a tad bit better about her current situation.

He looked at her with dark eyes, no longer the the bright blazing color of melted honey or molten gold. It was a dark butterscotch, and she knew that his absence from here that Ms. O'Riley had spoken about must have been his shift at the hospital. This strange yet familiar man was looking at her with almost no expression, his body went entirely still, like a strange statue with eyes that were very much alive.

"Why my dear Isabella, are you my cousin or are you not?" he responded softly.

Bella smiled.

"Bella."she said softly.

"Pardon?"he asked.

"Bella. I always thought Isabella was such a plain, old fashioned name. I've protested that name since I was little. My mother finally gave up one day, when I got hurt because I hadn't responded to my name and said that I was Bella then. The name has stuck ever since."she said it softly, telling a story she hardly ever told anyone.

Not even Edward knew why she had insisted to be called as such(For he had never asked). It was a tribute to the love and affection her mother had had for her... And telling Carlisle was a form of trust he hoped she would respond to.

"Well, Miss Bella 'Cullen', welcome to Chicago, 1917. And welcome to my home,cousin." he said.

And Bella nervously smiled at his words, wondering how the hell, with a jolt of panic, was she going to get _**her **_home?

* * *

**AN: I do not own Twilight, it belongs to its respected publishers and authoress, Stephanie Meyer.**

***Cad is a reference to man who is behaving inappropriately toward women.**

***Crumb is a mean, despicable person.**

**So yeah, chapter two is done! Just to say, there will be a total of ten chapters(Not including prologue and epilogue). But it will be lengthy nonetheless. And it will hopefully take me a short time to write this story, but I'm a little slow when it comes to updating, and I'd like to forewarn people reading this. Thank you for those who do, and I hope that it will continue to do so, and review as well. Reviews keep us authors going!**

**Next Chapter; Glass Bones**

**~Peace,**

**Moon Witch**


	4. Glass Bones

**Glass Bones**

The girl, the one he had come to call cousin to keep an eye on her, was constantly on edge. It was something Carlisle Cullen could see very clearly, and knew that even a human could see the 'frightful' state the girl was in. Or at least, that was what his land lord,(lady) Maggie O'Reily had said. The way she held her shoulders, hunched, as if to protect herself from any blow that would come, eyes alert and bright with worry, brows constantly furrowed. Truly, Isabella Swan, or Cullen, depending on whom you asked, was a very very stressed young woman. And at she spent most of her time with in the confines of his home, constantly reading. She read books both old and new, some he could hardly fathom how she understood them, and others of fiction that should hardly give the poor girl hope. All, he noted, were of time travel, or in some rare cases, distance travel through instances. All just furthered her frustration within the days in his home.

The days soon turned to weeks. The weeks, turned to two months, and he wondered how much more stressed this young woman could get. It was soon March, and the girl still read. The only spare times she would leave his home, or, really their home as it was now, would be for the grocery shopping, or to gather a few more books. It seemed that nothing that the girl read came close to anything she had encountered in her 'Willy Wonka Tunnel'(whatever that meant) as she had come to call it, nor the rip in reality. That only seemed to make the delicate looking girl look on the verge of some violent fit.

She certainly had enough of those in her slumber. They were not, as she had told him quietly one foggy dawn morning when he returned from work, as bad as they had been. His concerned look, something so subtle that most would have missed caused her to smile as she closed her large tome, slender, bird like fingertips keeping her place.

"Don't worry about me Carlisle, nightmares are not something that are new to me."she had said it in a soft breath, even though he was in the threshold of the door of his study, her on the loveseat a good distance away, feet curled underneath her, tome in lap.

She knew his strange vampirisic quirks, and it unsettled him as much as her knowledge of his personality. It never phased her, not even for a second, and it caused him to wonder, as he looked onto the girl on his sofa how often she had been around his future, (and somewhat mythical in his opinion) Coven to not even flinch as he sat across from her in an instant. She was a very unnatural human, he thought, hard to read, even with all her human give aways. Her face showed no strength, he thought, it looked as if some craftsman had painstakingly molded her bones from fine glass, and then weaved an equally breakable flesh around it. But still, there was something in her caramel eyes that showed a steel and fire that contrasted her fragile appearance, he thought.

He knew next to nothing of the girl's personal history, only her name, and her future place as someone his 'son' had courted, and nothing else. But, he did know of her nature, not of her past, and he supposed his future, but he did see her nature if nothing else in the limited time he found himself in her strangely relaxing presence. She was strong, despite her appearance, but still recovering from the harm her interaction with paranormal creatures had brought. Her kindness, and temper, were evident in her strange speech, as was her stubbornness. He found himself beginning to attach himself to her companionship, after so many years alone... And wondered somberly why she was so eager to leave it, yet knowing that by his side was not where she belonged in the least.

"What do you dream about?"he asked, somehow finding himself comfortable enough to ask such a question, one quiet day after his hospital shift had ended.

When she blinked, slow and hard, he wondered what had bewildered the usually composed girl so much. She looked at him carefully, wary and almost afraid to answer. It was quite private what he had asked, he knew, but as a curious man at heart, he knew he could no longer bare not to ask the question. It was one of many he had in store for her, and he hoped one day she would answer them all, even as they increased daily...

"Many things, some good, so bad."she said, vague as she always was.

Carlisle smiled without humor.

"Yes... Forgive my forwardness 'cousin', but as one who cannot dream, I always wonder."he said, eyes glittering with slight impatience, he was sure.

She smiled as he did, her own eyes glittering with that fire that he was becoming accustom to seeing.

"Don't try to guilt me. I'd like to keep my mysteries."she said with a slight chuckle.

He merely gave out a dry laugh at her 'mysteries'. She refused to share anymore than she had done the first night they had met, and it was almost as frustrating to him as her lack of breakthrough with her time problem. He knew her reasoning, she was afraid one word would destroy where she had come from with a single word from her mouth. Time paradox, or so she had called it. He could grasp that concept well enough, but still, it irked him. He truly wanted to know this girl, after all.

"Mysteries are only problems not yet solved."he snapped back, feeling in a argumentative mood.

She laughed, as she always did.

"To shay, to shay Carlise... I'd suppose I can say that I dream of home."she said softly, pausing as she looked at his expectant look.

"Go on."he said gently, underneath his breathe.

She smiled at him them, as if he was a child with his fingers caught in the cookie jar. With her lips then pursing, she sighed. And then again she smiled, and she responded with a slow, careful answer:

"I dream of my father, sitting at the table early in the morning eating his scrambled eggs, the only thing he can really cook, and drinking his coffee, worried and sad that I'm gone."

He blinked. She had not mentioned her mother, and the fact that he mentioned her father had to cook... He wondered, as he thought of her failed courtship how much more tragedy had this girl gone through?

"And your mother?" he asked.

She smiled, a fondness appearing as she looked far away from him, to where ever her past was.

"Frantic as well, probably in Washington with her husband, leading a search party or appearing on television."she said with a small, found laugh that one would reserve for their own child.

He blinked, and he seemed to convey his surprise to her easily enough.

"Oh, yes, she remarried. Things are different where I'm from you see... She was never very happy being confined to the sunless world she had been sent to, and when she was nineteen, me only a few months old she left my father. I think it was for the best, the marriage itself wouldn't have worked in the end, I think. They were both so different from each other."she said, no sorrow in her voice, just the same fondness of before.

"You do not hate her for leaving your father?"he asked, curious.

Isabella, as he called her in his mind, (despite what she preferred to be called) paused. She had frowned slightly, thinking deeply, curling her delicate legs beneath her, and placing her arm on the sofa's arm, chin in hand. She was silent for a moment, as if she really did not know the answer. Her camel eyes looked deep, thoughtful and a million leagues away. It was an expression he had come to see very often on this young woman's face, and he found that he would see it again.

"I suppose I don't. My mother is a free spirit, and my father is a calm, level headed man, together they would have only had disaster, and I think, though my father isn't exactly happy, he understands the reasoning between everything that happened between them. I'm happy that they found what they needed elsewhere." she said slowly, choosing her words carefully, eyes still far away.

He himself frowned. He thought of what was morally correct in this era, and even to the ideals that he remembered of his youth. The vague memory of his mother's death, as well as the sort respecting resentment it had brought between his father and him during his human days came to mind. He, even if he did not remember with perfect clarity, had longed for such a moment of completely family, and even now, he felt that once human ache within him.

"And what of your happiness, did you not feel deprived of a family as you grew up?"he asked.

She laughed, it was a long, honestly humorous laugh that made him stare.

"Never. As my mother once said, I was born thirty five and grew more middle-aged with each year. I wasn't one to be coddled or babied, even when I was very young. She's always called me an old soul, and though a family atmosphere would have been nice, I was happy with what I got, which was one of responsibility and maturity. Caring for people has always made me feel fairly happy."she said with another laugh.

He stayed silent as he observed this quite creature named Isabella Swan, and bowed his head as she bid a soft good night, for once, the small furrow of her brow gone as she closed the door to the bedroom that had never been used save by her, feet bare as they were prone to be, the deep blue, strange toe nails glittering in his advance sight, her tome still clutched between her fingers.

More days passed, the nights blurring, the soft tell-tale screams as he left fading with each passing day, the girl still always reading in his love seat, at times making notes in the journal he had bought for her, and never had dared read out of fear of rousing her short temper. She seemed to be sadden by the fact that nothing she read connected to her experience, but at the same moment accepting that she would probably never find anything. But she seemed so listless some days to him, looking at the approaching dawn, the hour when she woke up, greeting him as she always did when he came home. She always bid him goodbye, and welcomed him home, a soft thing that never failed to startle him as she did it.

She was, to him, a novelty that in the passing months became both a constant and a balm to his lonely soul. He was still alert, wary of her, wondering just why this lovely creature had been sent to him across space and time, yet hardly questioning God's will in it, for he knew that she was there for a reason. She, though quiet, spoke with a slowly growing confidence and intelligence astounding for someone her age, human or not human. He knew not if this was because of her future upbringing, or the unorthodox way she had been thrust into the world of adulthood at what he assumed a very young age, but when she did speak to him was par to par and toe to toe with his more confusing jargon of words.

She laughed when she thought appropriate, not simply because he had made a joke, as so many did, and was quick to point out his faults, still somehow looking at him with the eyes of trust, no matter how many faults he was quick to show. She loved him, platonic and endlessly, or she did at least to the man he would become, one he was becoming more eager to be as the days went on. He was eager for the future, and glad of what it would bring to him...

And because of that, Carlisle loved her as well.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

It was on sunny, bright morning, his held down, coat and hat low on his head did Carlisle walk passed the small, clear windows towards his flat with a heavy heart. He had run to late on his shift, lagging behind for the brutal surgery of the poor young solider, who had a violent fit in the night, harming himself severally in his left leg, causing him to lose his limb. He watched the sunlight in front of him with a bitter smile on his face, wishing he was quicker, wishing he wasn't limited with the knowledge of today, and that he could have saved the poor man's leg. He had fought for the sake of his family, cried and bleed, and killed for the sake of the country that had birth him, and he had lost his limb in a terror induced fit. Caused by whatever images that the 'War to end all wars' had caused. He sighed, rubbing the eyes that could never be tired again, and opened his door quickly, wishing for all the world that he could fall asleep, and dream of such a place were he was more helpful.

The smell of deep, rich spices startled him, and he walked towards the source, surprised to see Isabella quietly chopping vegetables, a small hot pot simmering softly to her side. She was not one to cook, as Mrs. Maggie had taken a liking to the girl, and himself, and provided most of the former's meals, despite her protests. For once he noted that her hair was bound up, out of her face, reveling her slender and clothed neck, and small strands clinging to the light fabric. She sang softly, as she worked, he noticed, without her notice. She was not, by all means, a Diva, but her quiet voice was pleasant, and so utterly human, as she sang of somebody she used to know, her tone mournful but somehow vengeful, strong and sometimes bitter. It was love, she said, an ache she still remembered. An addiction to a certain kind of sadness...

What a strange, non-nonsensical song, he thought. The words weren't poetic, they were raw and her voice reflected that. But in the same instant it was beautiful in its rawness, and it spoke of heartache that came and went. It was not a song of forgiveness, but a song of forgetting, of living through something painful and moving on. It was a song that suited her, not perfect, not elegant in the traditional sense, but raw and lovely all the same.

"Ah!"she suddenly said, startling him out of his musing.

He was very startled to see the small drop of crimson welling up at the tip of her pale finger where she had cut herself. For a second, as always, Carlisle felt the pull, the need and the raw ache of_**want**_**.** The need to drink that wonderful, rich scent of wild-flowers and summer storms, an ambrosia surly his for the taking. Such a bliss he had never known would come with just that single drop... Instead, he reeled back that primal part inside of him, taking a deep, calming breathe. Then, with the speed that no human could ever hold, he quickly went to care for her tiny wound. She breathed in a gasp, for the first time in a long time, surprised by his presence no doubt.

"Carlisle, I didn't hear you come in."she said softly, cheeks flushed.

He smiled at her sheepish expression, entertained and feeling his large mind shift away from the guilt of the young man's leg.

"Well Miss Swan, you must be more attentive to your surroundings... And your hands."he said with a small chuckle, watching as her cheeks darken at his light teasing.

"My mind was elsewhere."she whispered, watching his fingers bound her's.

"I see that."he said simply.

He stepped away quickly, blurring no doubt in her eyes. She looked at him for a moment, a frown appearing on her lips, and he knew what she saw. A man who looked tired and almost as old as his actual age.

"Rough day?"she asked, tilting her head to the side.

He simply nodded, and pushed her aside, feeling as if he needed to do something other than speak. He started to chop her vegetables at a blurring speed, even in his own eyes, careful to keep the strength weak enough so as not to break anything. She asked nothing, and instead directed him step by step on how to cook her breakfast. He mixed and did every little thing she asked, only pausing when she moved onto the next item, juice, squeezing the oranges she had bought at the market, keeping in mind to stir the pot of soup. It was a novel experience for him, cooking, so used to having to hunt down his meals. It was a good thing, a sort of deeper connection to whatever he was making, and it along with her voice, soothed down the emotions rising through him.

"Careful as you stir that, it's hot."said Isabella softly.

He did not pause in his stirring at her ridiculous concern for his safety, instead turning around and raising a brow at her. She paused in her instructions, giggling at herself.

"Sorry. Automatic."

He simply gave her a slightly crooked grin, amused by her concern. She giggled again, and began to finish her instructions promptly, yet gently. When it was finished, she ate a large bowl, lamenting about the inventions of domestic refrigerators.

"Pardon?" he asked.

She looked at him blankly, as she sometimes did when she mentioned something so regular in her future world that never failed to baffle him.

"Erm, its like an electronic ice-chest, it keeps food from spoiling. It could save the soup for a few days, and I wouldn't have to only eat that for today."she said, brows furrowed as if she was not sure she had used the right vocabulary.

He simply shook his head, thinking of the futuristic world and happy to have something to distract him from the present.

"It is amazing what humans come up with in so little time."he responded, thinking of all the wonders that had come from men's minds in the course of his life.

She smiled, pride and some other emotions blazing in her earthy eyes.

"It is."she said simply.

He smiled to her, noting faintly in the back of his mind that one day, hopefully soon, cases like that young soldier's leg would not happen again. With the little wonders she let herself describe, he found that day would come soon.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

He cooked for her when she let him, telling him that she had done this for herself for a long time, and found it odd when someone did it for her. He could understand that he supposed, he himself was used to keeping his homes, where ever they were, clean by himself. But, as he found, she had taken upon herself to repay him in some way, and as she gradually read less and less, she began to clean obsessively in return. She scrubbed her delicate hands raw, she dusted and dusted, she swept and she destroyed cob webs with a vengeance, yet gentle enough to allow spiders out of the flat, alive and well. Once, he swore she had cleaned every nook and carny of their home, and yet she found the need to mop the floors of the whole apartment until they shown and he could see his own reflection in the once dull wood.

"Bella."he said softly one afternoon, watching as she scrubbed the stove.

She didn't pause in her movements, but she did grunt in return, her brown hair wild and in the wake of the window above her, shinning red with strands he hadn't seen before in the blazing sunlight. He did not venture further himself, surprised she had removed the curtains, no doubt to clean the already pristine surface of the window. He found himself wary of her reaction of him in the sun. He knew she had seen his kind before in the sun, or at least he guessed she had, but somehow he did not want her to see him like that.

"Isabella you've been scrubbing for hours, please stop."he said louder this time, hopping it would cause some sort of reaction.

He had used her full name, and she still didn't turn. He ran his hand through his hair, and sighed in frustration.

"Isabella Swan!"he said shouting this time, rushing quickly to make her face him.

She looked shocked, her elbows full of suds, her hair even wilder with his pull, and her large caramel eyes full of tears, her nose red and dripping, her cheeks flushed. He froze at her expression, noting faintly that her soft heart shaped face was covered in the rays of lights reflecting from his skin, colors of abundance lighting her crying face almost artfully. She looked more fragile than ever in the wake of the sorrowful tilt of her brows, and the rueful drop to her lips.

"Am I stuck here?"she whispered, softly, almost like a whimper.

He could say nothing as her sud filled hands fisted in the lapels of his shirt. She clung to him, her expression suddenly turning into fury, and he could hear her teeth grinding in the force of her sudden anger.

"Am stuck in the past?! Am I never going to see my parents again?_ Am I going to __**die**__ here _?"she said, seemingly screaming loudly in pain even though she whispered, and he gathered her up into his arms for the first time since January twenty fifth.

He said nothing, not knowing the answer, and not wanting to give her false hope in the least. And she cried, loudly and wretchedly, all the pent up frustration and emotion of the past spilling forward. She clutched to him, her hands swinging themselves around his neck, clutching so tightly that had he been human he would have been harmed. She clutched and buried her face into his solid chest. With her face against his non-beating heart, he felt strange, light as air and as heavy as stone in the same breathe.

"I'm sorry."he told her finally, for not being able to help her, and for not being able to tell her more than than those two words.

She looked up at him, moving away from him, lashes adorned with tears and face flushed. Her hands moved to cling to his lapel again, and he stared into her eyes, wishing to do more for her.

"I've been very selfish Carlisle. Fuck time paradoxes."she whispered, softly, head lowering, before resting once again on his heart.

She spoke of her past suddenly, whispering as if she spoke to a diary, starting with her childhood, the way she had grown up, the struggle of meeting her maternal grandparents expectations, growing up in a childless world of California high society life with people no younger than fifty. With their deaths, she had been introduced to the scorching heat of Phoenix, an eccentric mother with a teaching degree at the tender age of eight, nothing but the inheritance of the people that had put in some semblance of stability into her life in their possession.

Already fairly responsible, she began to care for the mother's affairs in the household, going to school and cleaning the home, when she was old enough, twelve, she also began to take care of the financial aspect of her time period. She cared for her mother and she respected the finer idiosyncrasies of the woman she called mother, and she kept the worse of the men that courted her at bay. When she met her future husband when she was sixteen, Isabella backed off, and slowly saw the responsibility that she had clung to for so long disappear, and the newly wed couple that was her mother and Phil had struck her as something she shouldn't have been apart of. So she had left to live with her father, and had met the fated Cullen family.

The fact that she did not say Coven, but family struck Carlisle to the core.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Sometimes Bella Swan wondered how her life had turned so strange. One moment she was just the wall flower in the corner of the room, glad of it and wishing her life would stay like that forever, just a monochromatic world of gray. And then her mother had married Phil, and her world had started to shift, moving the things that she had clung to so desperately for so long in that shifting. Then, she had met Edward Cullen... Now, she wondered if she should hate the man or thank him for what he had done. He had made her world exploded into dazzling colors, and though he had made her loose herself in him, he had shown her what the world could offer, not necessarily through him, but she had only seen that long after he had left, and only after she had to come to remember that Bella _**could **_exist without him.

In a sense she had become a different person for him, Edward's Bella, she liked to think, looking back to those fog filled days. A perfect doll that though spoke a lot of independence, but would have followed the Adonis that he was to the ends of the earth. He had brought with him the promise of eternity, and family, something she wanted out of life more than anything... Something she could never make on her own. Her human family was all but gone, and the two remaining members, her parents, were all ready making their lives, away from her and in no need for her. Her human friends... Well, they had barely known even the person she had become for Edward, so she had no real regrets at leaving them behind. That was why she was so accepting of death before. She hadn't want to reinvent herself, make someone from the things she had been before. She had only ever been someone's, her grandparents', her mother's, her father's, and Edward's, never her own, and the thought of making the creature called Isabella Marie Swan terrified her.

But now? What of now? She asked herself those questions a lot, looking at the past around her as if outside her body. She didn't want to die, as selfish as that sounded, and that thought was a solid and unchanging thing to her now. Humanity had little to nothing to offer for her, and she longed for the dazzling colors that came with the world that she had seen before through the fog induced pleasure brought by Edward Cullen. As she stared above her, looking at the stars that were starting to fade by human action, and would all but gone in her time, Bella wanted to live so much longer than humanity's span could ever give her. She wanted time to make the person name Isabella Marie Swan to the person she was meant to be, and somehow, here, she no longer found herself afraid of making such a creature. She had been willing to die with Victoria, but that was only because she felt that was the only course for her. She wondered, here, so many years before she was even born, would she die? The thought made her sad. And yet, she knew that was not her only action. She could ask Carlisle to change her, and part of her thought that he would. Or at least, hope he would.

But at the same moment, she felt it as if she was betraying his trust to ask.

Besides, what would happen if he did? Would two Bellas in future destroy the fabric of reality? She had already told him of his family in greater detail, or at least now he knew the basics... And she sort of regretted telling him. On the one hand, it was selfish in the first place to keep the information to herself, because even if it might destroy the fabric of reality, the man who had made it all happened had the right to know. She sighed. And an answering sigh made her jump into a sitting position, and she tore her eyes away from the sky to her side.

"What are you looking at?"asked the young woman, her brown eyes wide and dark, her vibrant red hair a flame even in the dark of the night.

Her voice held the softest trace of an accent, and part of her started at the high, giggling voice that the woman produced. Her mouth was a mixture of a pout and question, and her wild red curls were loose and so unlike what Bella had seen most woman wear here. She was undeniably beautiful, and woman that would bring scandals, thought Bella, and bring men to their knees.

"The stars."she said softly back.

The woman, tilted her head to the side, in a soft, childlike movement that startled Bella as she scouted closer.

"Why? There's not much to look at."said the woman, raising a fine arched brow, her long nose scrunching in her confusion and the freckles across it becoming prominent because of the movement.

Bella shrugged, not really thinking that explaining the stars fate would make sense, nor really be of any value to the young woman.

"So, do you stare at them often?"asked the woman again.

Bella nodded, her gaze turning back to the stars. The woman beside her said nothing, humming a soft song that was gentle and lulling. Part of Bella wished to sleep to it, but she instead kept her gaze to the sky and tried to count, with a sort of childish urge within her coming to life, the stars in the sky. She found she always lost count around three hundred ninety something.

"My name is Victoria O'Reily. Are you Isabella Cullen?"asked the woman, Victoria.

Bella started at the name and nodded again. The red curls around the woman's shoulder's looked all too familiar. As the young woman smiled at her, just as soft and yet more human than before, a sort of friendship coming to her, just like the smile she would do in nearly hundred years, the words she said then echoed in her ears:

"_Too long I've waited for her death, too long have you stalled it old man!"_

With a soft chill of dread, Bella wondered just what had she done to anger her so much that even as a Vampire she would recognize her, and hate her. Even if that recognition came delayed, and even if the brown eyed woman next to her now looked at her with nothing but curiosity and kindness.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Sometimes, when she was quiet in her sleep, when his shift was canceled for that day, Carlisle would simply stare at the ceiling in his study, waiting for her to wake up and join him. It was faintly ridiculous, he knew, and he tired to distract himself with a book to pass the time and make it seem as if his life did not revolve around the whims of a eighteen year old woman, but he would fail utterly and think of what she would think if she would to pick up such a book. Would she enjoy it or hate it? It was then that he would sigh and toss the book aside, and go right back to staring at the ceiling. He had always hated days in which he had no shift, giving the pretext of humanity, he was always restless on such days.

His many projects, as of late were all but complete and he had no inspiration as of yet for anything else. He felt slightly dejected by this fact, and toyed slightly with the idea of asking Isabella for an object of the future, and maybe replicate it himself, or maybe helping the poor girl with her time problem. She had rejected any of his attempts to help in the earlier days of their strange arrangement, but he figure now that they were on friendly terms, perhaps she would trust him as himself, and not just as the man he would become in eighty nine years...

"What are you doing?"asked a quiet voice.

Carlisle jumped, pulling away from his inner thoughts and wondering when he had become so distracted as not to notice her waking. She was in her dress gown, leaning against the open door frame. She was smiling sleepily to him, and he wondered what had awaken her. No tell tell scream had alerted him, nor had she really said anything at all in her sleep... How had she slipped in here without him being aware?

"Reading."he lied smoothly, giving her a faint smile, closing the tomb across his lap as if he had been reading it.

She gave him a faint smile, and sat across from him, the desk in between him. She curled her legs beneath her, wounding her arms across her knees. Her caramel eyes looked slightly darker in her tired state, but brighter all the same.

"I see... H.G. Wells?"she asked curiously.

"One of my favorite authors. This is actually my favorite book as of late."he said back, patting the book fondly.

Her lips quirked.

"Never thought of you as a science fiction lover... But, yet again, it somehow makes sense."she said with a slight tilt to her head.

"I believe that science fiction is just a prelude to what may come."he said with a nod to her, holding up the book, _The Time Machine_.

Her lips quirked again, and she leaned forward.

"I'm no Weena."she said simply, eyes glittering.

"And I'd always figure you were the time traveler, not Weena. I mean, you were the one to travel."he said simply.

"Too true... But, then again, it's been a while since I read that book, I could be getting the details wrong. I always did prefer _War of the Worlds _myself."

He smiled at her, and she smiled in return.

"Favorite book?"he asked calmly.

"Wuthering Heights."

He wrinkled his nose at that, and ignored the how she laugh, giving her a questioning glance.

"Edward hated it as well... I guess he didn't really understand how I saw it, he just saw the hate and the ugliness that the main characters held within themselves... I just saw that their love, no matter how ill and wrongly held, was their only redeeming trait... As if that could save them, if both had made the right choices."she said.

"Did you see yourself and Edward that way?"he asked, curious.

She looked over at him, startled, eyes wide. She bit her lip then, ducking her head, averting her eyes, a flush on her sharp cheeks. After a moment of silence, she turned back to him, lip still between her teeth.

"No. I mean, really, I thought our love more akin to _Romeo and Juliet_, as silly as that sounds. I always thought that we we're torn apart by being human and vampire. But, I guess, with all star-crossed lovers, these sort of things have to end eventually."she said softly.

"You don't hate him, do you? My son?"he asked, hesitating slightly when he said son.

She snorted then.

"No, I don't. Part of me feels as if I _should_. But I just can't. He was my first love... If I could really call it love, and I'm grateful to him for showing me the world I had been missing before."

"You forgive too easily."he whispered quietly.

"Of course I don't! Next time I see him, I will most likely deck him in his smug, sparkling face, screw the fact that I'll break my hand doing it!"She said vehemently, shaking her tiny fist as emphasis.

He chuckled at her honestly.

"Perhaps you won't break it."he said simply.

"Of course I will, I mean, my fist plus vampire nose and or jaw equals broken hand."she said with another snort.

"Not if said fist is as strong as the nose and or jaw."he said simply.

His words brought a sort of stillness to the room, and Isabella looked over to him sharply.

"You would turn me?"she said it in a sort of breathy whisper that sounded terrified yet happy.

"I would have to. It's either that or death for you know the secret of our existence. Besides, I've grown rather fond of you, no need to let you die over something as silly as knowing what we are. An eternity isn't too long... I suppose if I get annoyed with you I could run away to another part of the country."he said with a disarming smile, a boyish one, he knew.

She gave him a weak, trembling smile.

"Thank you."

To that, he could not say anything, only watch as she buried her head between her knees and gave out a trembling sigh.

"Thank you."

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

It was the next day, when Bella was reading on the coach when she heard a knock on the door, startling her away from _The Time Machine_, and to the door, sighing as she put her finger as a book mark. She was slightly irritated to be taken away from her book, but she opened the door nonetheless. The tall, gangly teenager was _not _what she expected to see in the hallway of the apartment building. He was turned around when she opened the door, as if he had given up in waiting, or as if he was nervous.

"How may I help you?"she asked, making the boy freeze.

The boy turned around slowly, his odd, coppery hair flashing in the sunlight and made Bella freeze, and as she took in the slightly crooked, nervous smile on the boy's face, Bella knew. His green eyes were striking in his human face, and she nearly fell over because her knees were trembling.

"Hello, is Doctor Cullen home?"asked the boy, the human version of Edward Cullen.

Bella felt as if she could not get a word out, she simply stared at Edward as if he was talking in Japanese. Her mouth opened for a moment, as if to speak, and then snapped shut. What should she say to him? What _could_ she say to the boy that would turn into the man that would break her heart? Edward himself stared at her with a sort of curiosity, then he suddenly slapped his forehead.

"I am so sorry, I have been terribly rude, my name is Edward Mason. You must be the famed Isabella Cullen, the doctor's cousin."he said, dipping his head in a bow.

"Very distant cousin, but fond nonetheless."she said softly, dipping her head in a bow as well, trying to remember what little Edwardian etiquette she knew.

She stared at him, and both of them shifted uncomfortably.

"I am so sorry, but Carlisle had an emergency at the hospital."she lied, knowing in reality that he was on one of the many hunting trips he took when he had a free day.

Edward smiled again, and with a flourish extended something from his breast pocket. Automatically Bella reached for it, and looked down at the envelope.

"It's an invitation Miss Cullen, to my family's annual April Ball. My mother asked me to personally deliver this to Doctor, but as he is not available, I will deliver it to you. Send my greetings to your cousin, and I wish you a good day."he said.

He gave one curt bow, and Bella returned it. She watched him leave, and when he turned around at the corner of the hall, he smiled, a flush appearing on his slightly tan cheeks. She all but slammed the door, and slide against it breathing suddenly turning very quickly. She clutched at the invitation, and swore right then and there that being in the past would probably kill her.


End file.
